


None dare call it treason

by Dissenter



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination Attempt(s), Communication, Decimo Xanxus, Developing Relationship, Dino is a troll, F/F, F/M, Family Secrets, Flame Harmonization (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Flame Lore (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), M/M, Mafia Politics, Mafia inheritance laws, Mukuro may be a supervillain, Neither is the resistance, On the Run, Politics, Resistance, Secret Identity, The mafia are not nice, This is not what Tsuna meant when he said he wanted to be popular, Tsuna has no self worth, Xanxus is surrounded by idiots, cradle affair, responsible adult behaviour
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2020-01-23 08:29:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18546061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter
Summary: "Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason? Why, if it prospers, none dare call it treason"Tsuna is just starting high school, hoping that maybe, just maybe he’ll be able to kick the Dame Tsuna rep that he dragged around for the whole of middle school. After all, his grades have been improving recently, he thinks he might be starting a growth spurt, and he has a new girlfriend, Nagi. Things are looking up.Until someone tries to shoot him on the way to school. Now he’s on the run, his girlfriend is displaying some suspicious new talents, and Tsuna just wants to know why the fuck there are assassins after him.





	1. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown

**Author's Note:**

> AKA the au where Xanxus is Vongola decimo, Tsuna is the innocent highschooler who by his very existence is a threat to Xanxus’ rule, and the only people Tsuna can turn to are a rag tag team of unstable lab rats and abandoned children who might or might not be actual supervillains.

“When I said I wanted High school to be different from middle school this really isn’t what I had in mind.” Tsuna wailed, as his mysterious rescuer slammed the car into gear.

“Yeah well. Be careful what you wish for.” The driver snarled, as he hit the accelerator hard.

“Who are you people anyway? What’s going on? And _why_ were those guys shooting at us?” Somehow, Tsuna found that his sense of outrage was overriding the panic he really should be feeling. It felt pretty weird actually. Panic was an old friend after all, and outrage had never really featured much in his day to day life. It was just, it wasn’t _fair._

Things were finally, finally looking up. He’d just started high school, he had a _girlfriend,_ he suspected he might even be starting a growth spurt. With a fresh start in a high school that very few of his former classmates were attending, he might even finally be able to shake the Dame Tsuna nickname. Things had finally been looking up, and now, now people were _shooting_ at him and it just wasn’t _fair._

The driver was utterly unsympathetic to his outrage of course.

“The boss will fill you in when we get to the safehouse.” He said, and then ignored all Tsuna’s subsequent attempts at communication in favour of executing a terrifying series of evasive manuevers.

Fifteen minutes, and six near death experiences later they pulled into a garage. Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief as the driver turned the engine off.

Relief turned back to alarm as the driver led him into the house attached to the garage, because the people inside looked deeply alarming.

“Kufufufu good work Ken.” A man with purple hair, an eyepatch, and a truly intimidating set of scars said. “I see you’ve brought our new friend here without any lasting damage.” That was, possibly the final straw, fear, and confusion and outrage combined together to form a wild kind of hysteria.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is happening?” He shrieked. The driver, Ken, actually winced and covered his ears at the pitch.

“You’ll have to wait until Chrome chan gets back.” A man with silver hair and worrying tattoos said distractedly, as he scribbled something frantically on a pad of paper. “No sense doing the whole song and dance more than once.” Tsuna ground his teeth, but before he could let loose another outburst the door opened.

It was pretty much the last person he’d expected to see here. Maybe that had been naïve. After all, everything _else_ in his life had gone to hell today.

“Nagi?” He said, and couldn’t keep the shock of betrayal out of his voice. She shook her head slightly.

“It’s Chrome really.” She said softly. “I’m sorry I lied.”

“We sent Chrome to keep an eye on you. We figured the Vongola would send someone after you eventually. Loose ends can be so inconvenient.” The purple haired man smiled. “And of course we were right. You’re welcome by the way.” Tsuna ignored him.

“I guess I should have known better shouldn’t I?” he asked Nagi, no it was Chrome wasn’t it. “Of course it wasn’t real. Why on Earth would a girl like you be interested in someone like me?” He should have seen it coming really he supposed. It really had been far too good to be true.

“Tsuna.” She said, before trailing off. The uncomfortable silence might have held, if the silver haired man hadn’t rolled his eyes and spoken up.

“Quit the pity party. We just placed her in your school to keep an eye on you, she didn’t actually have to even talk to you. Yeah she lied to you, but trust me, dating you was entirely her idea, not mission related in the slightest.” Advice dispensed he returned to his work.

“Really?” Tsuna hardly dared hope. Chrome just nodded shyly.

“ _I_ told her it was a bad idea, getting involved with a mission target, but she wouldn’t listen. I’m sure you’ve noticed, she’s stubborn when she wants to be.” Tsuna had in fact noticed that. It was always a little startling to see that level of absolute determination coming from someone as shy and quiet as Nagi. She caught him smiling at her and smiled softly back, and he found himself subconsciously straightening up in response.

“So, who are you people anyway?” He asked, looking over the disreputable gathering of teenagers surrounding him.

“Well, right now we’re your bestest friends in the whole wide world.” The purple haired boy said with an unsettling smile. “We’re the people that are keeping you alive.” Nagi, no, Chrome stepped in.

“This is my brother Mukuro, and these are our teammates Ken, Chikusa, and Hayato.” She said, pointing in turn at the boy with purple hair, the insane driver that had got Tsuna there, a quiet boy standing in the corner with a yoyo, and the silver haired delinquent. “Skull kun is out handling another issue so you probably won’t get to meet him for a few days.”

“And why am I here?” He asked, and there was a cold nagging instinct at the back of his soul that told him the answer was nothing good.

“Because if you weren’t here you would be dead.” The boy with silver hair, Hayato, answered. “That’s what happens to harmless civilians with inconvenient blood claims to powerful mafia families.”

“But I…” Instinct nudged at Tsuna before he could finish his protest. “Oh. This is about my father isn’t it? It has to be, because I can’t imagine my mother being a criminal.”

“That’s right”, Hayato looked pleased at him for working it out. “You’re father was Sawada Iemitsu, head of the Vongola’s outside advisory body, and unfortunately for you, also a direct blood descendent of the Vongola’s first boss.” And wow. Tsuna had always kind of suspected his dad had been a bastard, he’d pretty much abandoned his mother after all, and the obviously lying postcards, from the obviously fake job hadn’t exactly left a good impression, but he hadn’t thought he was _that_ kind of bastard.

“Was? He’s dead then. I was never completely sure. He didn’t exactly keep in regular contact, but my mother and I hadn’t heard from him in years and he did used to send postcards now and then.”

“Yeah, about seven, eight years ago now. Things were kind of a mess for a while when Xanxus took over. I wouldn’t feel too sore about not being informed though, the fact that no-one remembered you existed was probably the only reason no-one offed you and your mother immediately.” Ken utterly failed to be comforting, but that was ok, Tsuna wasn’t sure he actually cared about his father being dead anyway.

“Who’s Xanxus” Intuition again, pushing him to ask, because something about the name Xanxus seemed _important,_ and listening to his instincts seemed like a more productive plan than just shrieking incoherently which was the other option.

“Xanxus di Vongola. Tenth boss of the Vongola famiglia, former boss of the Varia, Vongola’s independent assassination squad, illegitimate son of the ninth head of the family. Wrath flames, very strong Sky, close ties with the Cavallone and the Superbi.” Hayato explained. He seemed to like explaining things. Despite his delinquent image, Tsuna was starting to get the sense that Hayato might in fact be something of a nerd. It wasn’t nearly such a reassuring thought as it should have been, considering that the nerd tendencies seemed to be focused on mafia politics.

“A very dangerous man.” The boy called Chikusa spoke up for the first time, startling Tsuna. “Especially since your blood claim to the Vongola leadership is at least as strong as his. It makes you a liability.” Tsuna had a very bad feeling about this. Experience told him nothing good ever came from words like liability and instinct was telling him blood claim might be even worse. Liability after all just got him kicked off sports teams, and left to eat alone at lunch time, he had a feeling blood claim might have just got him shot at.

He should have been terrified, and he was, truly, but the fear was being overridden by the overwhelming sense of injustice that had been building since Ken had first dragged him into his car, and so, mostly he was just feeling pissed off, more pissed off than he’d ever been in his life.

“So why are you helping me then? If this Xanxus is so dangerous, why would you risk making him your enemy?” And maybe it wasn’t the right question to be asking the people who were apparently keeping him alive, but he needed to know, and he’d never been much good at subtle. Quiet and underconfident, yes, easily intimidated and susceptible to peer pressure, yes, but not subtle, not really.

“Oh well, he’s already our enemy, we’re the anti-mafia resistance movement, devoted to destroying the mafia and all its works. That being the case, it seemed like bit of a waste to let you die. After all you might be useful.” Mukuro drawled, and his flippant tone failed to match the calculation in his eye, and the bloodthirsty smile that showed far too many teeth. Tsuna was starting to suspect Mukuro might be one of the most terrifying people he’d ever met.

“Also.” Chrome said softly. “You’re a good person. You didn’t deserve to die. If we stand against the mafia, if we want to destroy everything it represents, then we have to be better don’t we?” It shook Tsuna a little, to hear that from her because that was the same kindness, the same quiet conviction that she’d shown when she was Nagi, and lying, lying, lying to him. How much of the lie had been true? And did it matter, he still loved her even with the lies. This whole situation should upset him more than it did, actually. The shooting, that upset him, so did the news that the mafia apparently wanted him dead, but finding out his girlfriend was secretly a resistance fighter, that she’d been lying to him, that she’d even lied about her _name,_ he should have been a lot more upset about that. Maybe it was because he’d been expecting a catch, that it had been too good to be true, because beautiful girls like Nagi just didn’t date losers like Tsuna, even if they were nearly as shy as he was. Or maybe it was because even after everything that happened, something about her still felt so warm, and real, and _right_ about her, like she belonged with him, like she really truly did want him. Or maybe it was just that everything was so messed up that Nagi… Chrome’s lies seemed like a minor miscommunication in comparison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So basically, I got to thinking what would have happened if Xanxus' coup succeeded, and he'd killed Nono. After all the only three people canon explicitly states know that Xanxus isn't Vongola are Nono, Xanxus himself, and Squalo, and we all know Squalo would rather eat ground up glass than betray Xanxus, so with Nono dead, no-one would actually know he wasn't eligible for the leadership. So the coup suceeds and Xanxus becomes Decimo.  
> Of course there would have been some housecleaning to make sure no-one asked awkward questions when Xanxus doesn't actually wear the ring, but by the time the dust settles, no-one with suspicions would dare actually say them out loud, especially since their aren't any other known heirs to mount a challenge. Xanxus is smart enough to eliminate Iemitsu fairly early (and with great satisfaction), and no-one except Iemitsu, Nono, a couple of the CEDEF, and Nono's guardians actually knew about Tsuna and Nana, so Tsuna is basically left to his own devices for a while, longer than in canon.  
> Then someone does some digging, finds Iemitsu and Nana's marriage certificate, finds Tsuna's birth certificate, and decides to try and gain Xanxus favour by eliminating the potential problem.  
> Meanwhile Mukuro has been doing what Mukuro does, but never fought Tsuna and so never got caught by the Vindice, he recruits Hayato and Skull along the way as they get steadily more disillusioned with the mafia. Chrome has her accident as in canon and then gets recruited by Mukuro, but because without Tsuna, Mukuro has no morals, he just harvests the organs of the next compatible enemy they kill, and gets her fixed.  
> Hayato finds out about Tsuna's existance before anyone else, by being a complete nerd about mafia politics, and hacking into Japanese govt databases to track Iemitsu's history. Mukuro suspects that might be useful somehow, and since Chrome is still recovering from surgery and only up to light work, he sends her to go undercover at Tsuna's school and keep an eye on the situation


	2. Some rise by sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Xanxus and Dino discuss a very inconvenient situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Xanxus' POV on the whole situation, with side commentary from Dino. I've decided to alternate chapters between Tsuna, Xanxus, and Nana's perspectives, to give a clearer view of everything that's happening.

Xanxus was surrounded by idiots. Absolute unmitigated idiots. If these particular idiots hadn’t already managed to get themselves killed by anti-mafia terrorists, then he’d be seriously tempted to remove them from the gene pool, for the good of the criminal underworld as a whole.

“What is wrong with this trash?” Xanxus muttered under his breath. “Have they never heard of evaluating the situation before making a hit?”

“Well you can’t exactly expect mooks to be Varia quality now can you.” Dino smirked from the sofa he was draped over. Someone who didn’t know better might think he looked put together, but Xanxus happened to know he was draped over the sofa because if he tried to move Xanxus would probably have to fish him out of the wreckage of the furniture. Dino was a hazard that way. He’d been there since Romario dropped him off, and he probably wouldn’t risk moving until another of his men came to pick him up. Xanxus knew all of that, and yet Dino sprawled over the sofa still wouldn’t stop being a distracting image.

“I’m not asking for Quality. Just some basic common sense would be nice.” He snarled. Dino blinked slowly.

“Well you seem more royally pissed off than usual. What did they do lover mine?” Xanxus had to remind himself he didn’t actually want to strangle Dino, no matter how tempting the option might seem in the moment.

“Apparently Sawada spawned.” Dino’s eyebrows went right up. Xanxus could sympathise with his surprise, he himself was still somewhat baffled that any woman would choose to spawn with Sawada trash. It appeared there was no accounting for taste.

“Really? Well, I didn’t see that coming.” Dino thought for a moment before continuing. “Didn’t we kill him?” To be more specific Dino had killed him, Xanxus being otherwise occupied, but since it was part of Xanxus’ overall plan, they were both perfectly happy to consider it a combined effort.

“Yeah. Apparently, he had the kid before we got to him.”  And wasn’t that just another sign that Xanxus was surrounded by incompetent trash. _Someone_ must have known the spawn existed. It wasn’t like Sawada trash had ever been _subtle._ He should not have found this out third hand, seven years after the fact.

“Hmmm. How old?” It was a relevant question, helped pin down the exact kind of liability the spawn was likely to be. Dino always was good at calculating variables.

“Teenager, civilian.” Dino nodded in consideration. A mafia teenager might have had the skills and contacts to cause trouble, but a civilian teenager would only be a problem if someone else decided to _make_ him a problem. Not that there was ever any shortage of those sorts of idiots in the mafia.

“Not a problem on his own account then. What did the idiots do?”

“Assassination attempt.” Xanxus grunted, although if he was honest it was a little painful to dignify that particular clusterfuck with the title assassination. Who the fuck _failed_ to kill a ditzy civilian teenager with no body guards, no combat skills, and no knowledge that he was a target. That wasn’t an assassination, it was a professional embarrassment.

“Well I suppose it could have been worse. At least they didn’t try to recruit him to use against you.” Dino was clearly trying to look on the bright side. Xanxus did not appreciate the effort.

“ _Failed_ assassination attempt. Kid _was_ a perfectly harmless civilian. No clue about his heritage, no reason to go looking. The situation was perfectly manageable before those idiots decided to charge in guns blazing.” Dino winced. There was nothing like a failed assassination attempt to make enemies and alienate people. For some reason people tended to take their own attempted murder personally. “And it gets worse.” Xanxus continued, as he took yet another swig out of his bottle of wine.

“Worse?” Dino asked with a morbid curiosity Xanxus suspected was yet another legacy of Reborn’s tutoring.

“There’s no hard confirmation, but there have been reports of Sky flames in the area of the attack. _Vongola_ Sky flames.”

“Fuck. The idiots sent him active?” Xanxus nodded silently. “Wow. You really are surrounded by morons.” Dino looked more entertained than sympathetic, and Xanxus felt a sudden and overwhelming urge to throw the empty wine bottle at his head. So he did. Dino managed to dodge in a flailing tangle of limbs that knocked the lampshade off the table by the sofa and ended with Dino in a heap on the floor. Xanxus smirked in satisfaction as he pulled out another bottle of wine and opened it. It took a few minutes for Dino to drag himself back up onto the sofa and start asking relevant questions again. “So who has him now?” He asked and it _burned,_ having to admit the truth, but he hadn’t got to be Vongola decimo by keeping secrets from the Cavallone boss, so he bit back hard on his anger and replied.

“We don’t know. Nobody seems to know. He’s vanished off the face of the earth, and we don’t have any people on the ground to try and track him. It’s an absolute mess.” If Xanxus had known being Vongola decimo would involve this kind of political clusterfuck he might have held off on killing the ninth. Maybe. Probably not though, the fucker really had it coming.

“Any other relatives?” Dino asked. Information, or leverage, relatives were useful, and that streak of brutal practicality was a good part of the reason Xanxus liked Dino so much. So much more honest than the ninth’s bleeding heart squeamishness about such talk, squeamishness that never seemed to extend to his actions.

“Just his mother. According to reports she’s civilian too, and oblivious enough for Sawada trash to keep in the dark, and we all know how subtle he wasn’t. I’ve sent some people to pick her up, but I doubt she’ll know anything.” Left unspoken was that fact that oblivious or not she still might make good leverage. Not that Xanxus would actually hurt her when it wasn’t absolutely necessary, but as long as they had her in custody Mist flames could fake any proof of mistreatment they needed, and it wasn’t like a civilian, even a civilian Sky would be able to tell the difference. “They’ll be arriving in Namimori in an hour or so, maybe sooner. There shouldn’t be any trouble on that front at least.” Dino looked unsure, but before he could say anything the phone rang.

“Hey, boss.” The tone of voice was not the one Xanxus wanted to hear. Not the casual confidence of a Varia operative reporting a successful mission. No it was the nervous, vaguely conciliatory tone of a Varia operative reporting a colossal screw up. It was not what he wanted to hear from the men he’d sent to retrieve Sawada Nana.

“What happened trash.” He snarled.

“Well we got to Namimori, and went to the address we were given, but the target had already cleared out. She’s in the wind boss, sorry. Looks like she left before our plane even landed.” Xanxus threw the phone against the wall in a flash of rage. It wasn’t a particularly productive thing to do, but it was mildly satisfying.

“I take it she’s already gone.” Dino asked, as though confirming a theory he’d already had.

“What do you know horse trash.” Xanxus was not in the mood for guessing games.

“Well I didn’t make the connection until you said you were picking up Sawada’s widow, but Reborn told me earlier that Lal Mirch has gone off grid.” Xanxus’ eyes were probably glowing red orange with wrath, but Dino didn’t even flinch, and that was yet another reason he appreciated Dino so much, irritating tendency to be cryptic notwithstanding.

“What has Lal Mirch got to do with anything?” Dino looked at him as though he were being particularly slow. Maybe he was, rage always tended to erode Xanxus’ ability to think things through clearly. It was a tendency that had nearly doomed his coup before it started. It was lucky that Dino was so good at getting him to settle long enough to consider the angles.

“Well, Sawada senior wasn’t exactly subtle, _someone_ must have known about the wife and kid, and Mirch was his second in command. If anyone knew about them, and where they were it would be her, and she’s got enough of a sense of fair play and loyalty that she might try and protect them.”

“So you think Lal Mirch has them?” It wasn’t the most implausible theory. Certainly it made more sense than two civilians being able to drop off the Varia’s radar all by themselves. Lal Mirch was one of the best, she’d be more than capable.

“Maybe just the mother.” Dino hedged. “Lal Mirch can’t teleport and she didn’t vanish until this morning, there’s no way she could have been in Japan sooner than a couple of hours ago. _Someone_ helped the kid escape an assassination attempt, unless you think an untrained civilian could vanish like that on his own there must be another party involved. Whoever they are do you really think they’d let him go now that they’ve got him?”

“Point.” Xanxus grunted. “So you think Mirch has the mother, and some unknown fourth party has the kid. Who?”

“You know a touch of Vongola intuition doesn’t make me omniscient sweetums. That’s all I’ve got.” Dino grinned with that wild smile that he wore when he was provoking someone dangerous. He wore it a lot around Xanxus and it never got old.

“What did I tell you about the pet names?” It was half playing along, half genuine threat and Dino like danger enough that he just found the ambiguity more appealing.

“That if I kept using them you’d make me sorry. Are you going to make me sorry sugarplum?” Dino was still grinning sprawled on the sofa, daring Xanxus to back up his words, and it was enough to make Xanxus forget the paperwork he should still be going over in favour of trying to wipe that smile off his lover’s face.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the reason Xanxus coup succeeded in this universe is because Xanxus and Dino are a thing, therefore Dino both backed Xanxus' power play, and managed to calm Xanxus down until he could plan his attack better.   
> Xanxus isn't actually keen on having to kill a helpless civilian, and if the idiots hadn't jumped the gun would probably have posted some guards to monitor Tsuna's situation, and hoped it never became an issue. Unfortunately things have gone past the point where that would have been practical, and he's pissed off about it.


	3. When the battle's lost and won

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nana and Lal go on the run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer this chapter, but there were things that had to happen before I switch back to Tsuna's pov, and some of them took a while.

 “Ara”, Nana blinked. “And who might you be?” The young girl crouched on her windowsill ignored her question, in favour of examining Nana’s kitchen with a professional gaze.

“Sawada Nana?” She demanded, tersely, with a voice that didn’t rightfully belong to a child. In fact on second glances perhaps she wasn’t one. She _looked_ like a child, save for the age in her eyes and the combat gear she was wearing, but there was something fundamentally unchildlike about her presence. Maybe it was some kind of rare genetic condition, Nana thought she remembered hearing about something like that in a newspaper at some point. If it was, it was probably best not to mention it, it seemed like it might be a personal subject. Instead she chose to respond to her visitor’s question.

“Yes.”

“My name is Lal Mirch, I used to work with your husband.” Definitely not a child, and if she used to work with Iemitsu koi, well, maybe she would have some answers for what happened all those years ago.

“Would you like to come in?” She offered, because in her experience sitting down to talk together with a hot drink helped more often than it didn’t.

“No time.” Lal Mirch responded. “We need to leave. Immediately. People will be coming here soon and you shouldn’t be here when they arrive.”

“Ara.” Part of Nana wanted to argue, to demand answers here and now, but she’d always been good at holding that particular impulse in check. In her experience demanding answers seldom got better results than waiting for them to make themselves clear, one way or the other. Besides, there was no lie in Lal Mirch’s eyes when she said they needed to leave _now._ “Do I have time to pack a bag?”

As it turned out she did. Just. Lal stood in the window tapping her foot as Nana tossed spare clothes into a bag and wondered what exactly you were supposed to pack when going on the run. Easier to focus on that, to think about toothbrushes, and clean underwear, and whether she should take a book for the journey. Far easier than thinking about Tsuna, about where he was, whether he was safe. Because there was a cold twisting feeling in Nana’s stomach that told her he was not safe, and even Lal couldn’t tell her for sure where he was. Just that their enemies hadn’t caught him yet, which meant he’d probably found some kind of help.

Once she was packed it was a shortcut across the neighbours’ gardens, and then a twist and turn down a dozen side streets before ducking down an alleyway to a row of garages. Lal Mirch opened one, to reveal basic camping beds, a stash of tinned food, and enough medical supplies to outfit a small hospital. Nana waited until they were settled to ask her questions.

“You knew my Iemitsu?” Start at the beginning. Things were always clearest if you started at the beginning, and Nana felt in desperate need of clarity.

“He was my boss.” Lal Mirch replied absently, as she checked over her gun.

“He wasn’t in construction was he?” And it wasn’t a _surprise_ that Iemitsu had lied to her, heavens knew he’d never been especially convincing about it, but it still hurt, knowing that a stranger was about to give her the truth that Iemitsu never had. Almost as much as the day she’d realised he was dead, and he would never have a chance to tell her what he was hiding.

Lal looked up at that, looked Nana in the eye searching for something. Whatever it was she must have found it, because she didn’t try to dissemble.

“No. He was mafia. He died in the coup when the new boss took over.”

“Ah”, Nana said softly. “I wondered if it was something like that. It’s his enemies then, that are coming after us. Some kind of revenge maybe?” Lal shook her head.

“Anything like that died with your husband. What’s the point in targeting the family of a dead man. No, the people we’re concerned about now are your son’s enemies.”

“My Tsu kun? But he’s not involved with the mafia. He’s just a high school student. Why would he have enemies?” Fear warred with anger in Nana’s chest as she thought of her Tsu kun being hunted by killers. For a brief moment she almost imagined she could feel fire curling through her breath at the threat to her child. Lal Mirch’s eyes widened slightly.

“It’s because he is your husband’s son. Your husband had blood claim to the leadership of the Vongola, and that means your son does too. It makes him a threat. Even if he doesn’t want to be.”

“I see.” Nana felt a wave of killing calm wash over her as the pieces came together in her mind. “And where is my son now?”

“I told you, I don’t know.” Lal snapped defensively, but Nana could sense there was something she was holding back. She put more force into her demand.

“What _do_ you know?” There was power in her voice Nana realised abstractly, as Lal Mirch sweated slightly under the weight of it.

“We reviewed available footage. Your son was seen multiple times in the company of Dokuro Chrome in the weeks leading up to all this, and a few hours ago, he fled from the scene of a shooting with Joushima Ken.”

“I don’t know what those names mean.” Nana was still icily calm, and a part of her was vaguely aware that the calm she was feeling couldn’t be natural, that she should be screaming, and crying, and terribly terribly afraid. It wasn’t natural for her head to be so clear, for focus to come so easily when usually it slipped through her fingers like fog. But Lal Mirch was speaking again, and that mattered more than wondering what was wrong with her.

“They’re known associates of Rokudo Mukuro.” The small woman said seriously. The name rang with a significance that Nana could feel but not identify.

“And who is Rokudo Mukuro?” She asked, and knew she wouldn’t like the answer.

“A very dangerous man. Some people call him a terrorist, some call him a freedom fighter. Either way he’s sworn to destroy the mafia, and he’s left a long trail of bodies behind him on his quest.”

“Is my son safe with him?” Nana asked, and Lal looked both startled and impressed by the force of her demand.

“It depends. I suspect that if Rokudo didn’t kill him quickly, and you would know by now if he did, then by this point it’s unlikely he’ll be able to kill your son.”

“Explain.” And it almost didn’t feel like Nana doing the asking, some alien instinct hijacking her voice to demand answers.

“A strong Sky in distress, with no elements of his own for protection? He’ll be putting out a call even bonded elements would find hard to ignore and it is known that Rokudo Mukuro is no-one’s guardian.” Lal looked almost surprised that Nana hadn’t guessed this for herself, as though it was something she should have just _known,_ and there was a little voice at the back of Nana’s mind that couldn’t help but resent Iemitsu for that. These were things he must have known, that he knew she didn’t know. Of all people, he should have been the one to explain this to her.

But Iemitsu was dead, and the secrets he should have told her were instead being explained by this woman, a virtual stranger, and it made her resent him in ways that surprised her with their intensity.

Well, so be it. Nana was tired of waiting for a dead man’s answers. If Lal Mirch was willing to tell her the truth then her answers would do.

 “Tell me about Skies.” Nana demanded, instinct telling her it was the right question to start with.

“You don’t know?” Lal blinked. “But you’re…”

“I know it’s important, I don’t know why I know, but I do. But I don’t know what it means.” Lal visibly paused as she considered how to answer Nana’s question.

“It’s… hard to explain in words. There’s seven different types of dying will Flames, each has their own particular effects, their own strengths. Skies though, they’re special, they act as a centre, a point for the other Flames to rally around, to lean on.” There was a shadow in Lal’s eyes as she explained, and there was something in Nana that wanted nothing more than to soothe away the ragged edges of old hurt and betrayal. “Skies can be… everything, if you let them be, home and support, and shelter from all the hurt in the world. It’s hard to resist.” Left unsaid were the dangers that lay in one person being everything to another, how easily that kind of relationship could go bad. Unsaid, but Nana wasn’t a child, she had seen enough of life to guess what the woman across from her wasn’t saying.

“And my Tsu kun is a Sky.” It wasn’t really a question.

“Well I don’t know for certain, but I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t. It runs in families you know. Iemitsu was a respectably strong Sky himself, and then there’s _you_.” There was something in the way Lal said the word _you_ , breathed almost like a prayer, and Nana didn’t quite know how to react. The way Lal spoke to her, and looked at her, and felt right for reasons that went beyond words and Nana didn’t want to know what it meant, but she wasn’t a child, and she wasn’t a fool, and she couldn’t keep herself from putting the pieces together. Asking about Tsuna was almost as much distraction from the growing realisation as it was fear for her son, because there was a steadily growing core of certainty in her that _felt_ that Lal was right about Rokudo Mukuro protecting him.

“So this Rokudo Mukuro will protect my son because he’s a Sky?” Lal nodded.

“I won’t say that elements _can’t_ hurt a Sky. Even their own Sky, if there’s enough cause. But it’s not something flame actives generally _want_ to do, not without a reason. And there will be a part of Rokudo that _wants_ to protect him, it’s about as much safety as he can expect under the circumstances. I know you _know_ I’m right.” And there it was again, that truth that Nana couldn’t help but feel, deep in her soul where lies were of little use.

“I’m a Sky as well aren’t I?” The weight of it resonated through Nana’s bones even as she asked. Lal smiled bitterly.

“It hurts, just how much you feel like home,” she confessed, and the way she said it just about broke Nana’s heart.

“A Sky hurt you before, didn’t they?” Nana said softly. It wasn’t really her place to ask, but if not her then who? Bitter experience had taught her that sometimes the very worst thing was when nobody asked, when nobody saw, or nobody cared, or everyone assumed they knew. Better to risk pushing where she wasn’t wanted than to risk leaving someone else to drown in the same loneliness she’d felt when Iemitsu died.

She’d known. She’d always known he was dead, she’d felt it. Probably that had been her Sky flames. But she’d known even before he was late calling home, even before the letters stopped coming, and while the neighbourhood gossiped that he must have left her for another woman, she’d always known it was more than that.

Oddly, it hadn’t been the loss of Iemitsu that had left her drowning. She’d been sad of course, but he’d been away so often, she knew how to live her life without him. It had been what his death revealed that cut her to the bone. It had been the way no-one had seen her grief for him, the way no-one else noticed he was gone, the way nobody _asked_ if she was ok. It had been the utter loneliness of knowing that no-one cared.

Or no, that wasn’t fair, her Tsu kun cared, but he had been a child, there was only so much he could understand, and only so much she was willing to burden him with. She loved her son, but it was so very lonely, with no adult friends to listen to her troubles.

And now there was a woman sitting in front of her who didn’t expect anyone to ask about the broken edges behind her eyes. A stranger maybe, but also the woman who had come to save Nana unasked and unlooked for, the woman who had told her all the truth her own husband had kept from her, a woman who was already planning how to try and help Nana’s son. How could she not ask?

“A Sky hurt you” she said, and underneath the surprise at her bluntness, and the irritation at the invasiveness of the question, Nana could see something like relief in Lal’s eyes.

“Yeah.” Lal admitted. “I trusted her, we all did, and she sold us out. I know why she did it, but that doesn’t make it ok.”

“No.” Nana agreed, with a burning icy cold conviction that felt both like and unlike herself. “No it doesn’t, and you don’t have to be ok with it, you don’t have to forgive her. You don’t owe her anything.” Nana paused a moment, “You don’t owe me anything either, you don’t have to tell me anything, but… if you want to talk about it, I want to listen.” Lal’s eyes widened a little.

“You know, I think you’re the first person to ever say that to me.” There were wisps of indigo and violet outlining Lal’s shape, and Nana wondered if they were Lal’s flames.

“It’s what I always wished someone would say to me, back when I was raising Tsuna alone, when I knew Iemitsu wasn’t coming back, and sometimes I’d go days without speaking to another adult, and no-one ever looked close enough to _see_ me.” There was orange now, mingling with the different shades of purple and somehow, Nana knew that the orange was hers.

“Oh.” Lal said, startled. “Oh, you’re a match. We could, if you wanted to, we could…” she trailed off.

“What do you mean?”

“You could be my Sky. If you wanted to be. We’re compatible. I don’t think anyone’s been strong enough to match me since…” Lal sounded almost stunned at the realisation.

“Since her.” Nana realised. “Is that something you would even want after…”

“No.” Lal snapped suddenly, with violet fire in her eyes. “No I refuse to let her take this from me. I refuse to let her destroy this as well. Bonds aren’t supposed to be like that, they’re supposed to be good, to be something to fight for, I want harmony, I’ve always wanted it, and I refuse to let what she did keep me from trying again.” The fire died down a little, replaced by uncertainty. “That is, if you would be willing to try with me?”

“I’m still not sure how all this works, but, I think, I would like to try.” In that moment their flames came together like waves breaking on a beach, and all of a sudden Nana could _feel_ Lal, the same way she could her Tsu kun, the same way she had once been able to feel Iemitsu, she could feel her and for the first time in years Nana wasn’t alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep Nana is now pissed off, Flame active, and bonded to Lal Mirch.  
> Incidentally in this verse bonds can be broken if either side is unhappy, so they haven't just rushed in to something permanent. They've decided to try, but Nana is new at all this and Lal is skittish after the Luce incident, so they're being careful and trying to talk about things properly.  
> They're not together in any romantic sense, yet, they're the slow burn pairing, emphasis on slow. But they do like and respect each other a lot already, and there are things they do find attractive about each other. (Nana doesn't find Lal's chibi form physically attractive, but she likes the lethal competence). The curse will be broken before things get icky.


	4. Speak low if you speak love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tsuna and Chrome have an important discussion, and Tsuna would really like for the universe to stop kicking him in the teeth now please.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Tsuna's pov. This takes place about simultaneously with the last chapter.

“You need to talk.” Hayato san had said, bluntly, before unceremoniously shoving him into Chrome’s bedroom and closing the door behind him.

An awkward silence followed. Neither he or Chrome were exactly outspoken, and it wasn’t as though it was an easy subject. In the end Tsuna sat down next to Chrome. He should have a thousand questions to ask right now, he knew, he should be demanding answers, but he just felt so _tired_. Tired in heart and body and soul, and it felt like whenever he managed to start scraping himself back up off the ground the universe had to kick him in the teeth again.

“I know why you lied.” He said instead, because it was true, even without that odd nudge of instinct whispering in his ears, the same way it had warned him of the bullets in time to duck, he could work it out. He might just be Dame Tsuna, but it wasn’t like they’d been subtle. This was about organised crime and everyone knew criminals had rules about who could be told things.

“Do you forgive me?” She asked softly, and it was a fair question, because knowing why she lied was not at all the same thing as being okay with it. It had hurt, knowing that she’d been lying to him since the day they met, even about her _name._ And even if the assassination attempts, and the kidnapping, and the revelations about his father’s criminal dealings seemed more urgent this still mattered.

He gave the question the thought it deserved, because this wasn’t just about whether he forgave her for the lies. This was about whether he could live with the truth, now that it had been revealed. If he still wanted to be her boyfriend knowing who she really was, knowing what kind of things she must have done. He wasn’t stupid, whatever his middle school teachers might have tried to tell him, and even if they hadn’t effectively admitted to being at war with organised crime, he’d have had to be blind to miss the current of violence that ran through the auras of her brother and teammates.  He knew she must have committed crimes, must have hurt people, he might not know the details yet, but they were there for the asking. If he thought he could live with the answers.

He wondered what it said about him that he knew the answer to the question even before she asked it.

_He’d first met her the day they started high school. Probably they’d never have even dared speak to each other if the teacher hadn’t assigned them to sit together. She’d was pretty, he remembered thinking, and it was surprising how well she managed to blend into the background in light of that, and how distinctive she looked. That first day neither of them had managed much beyond a stilted introduction, but still, somehow Tsuna found himself drawn to her._

“Do you forgive me” She asked, and the answer was yes, it was always going to be yes and it was terrifying how easy that question was to answer. Up until that moment he hadn’t realised just how much of a hold she had over his heart.

“Yes, always” he said, and was caught off guard when she dived in for a kiss that tasted of relief, and hope, and fear. It occurred to Tsuna that maybe he wasn’t the only one frightened by the strength of feeling that had grown between them.

_It had taken time, for them to become truly comfortable talking to each other. Neither of them was good at reaching out. It had taken time, but weeks sitting next to each other, being assigned to pair projects together, being pushed into interaction, had done their work well, and soon Tsuna was holding longer conversations with Nagi than he had with anyone but his own mother in, well in years really. He hadn’t realised talking to another human being could be so comfortable._

_She was sweet was the thing, sweet and quiet, and viciously determined under it all, and it really shouldn’t have taken as long as it did to figure out that he liked her._

_He still wasn’t sure where the courage to ask her out came from._

“So what happens now?” He asked, when they came up for air, and he was still tired to the bone, but, maybe a little less so than he had been before she kissed him.

“I think Mukuro nii sama will probably try and get you some training. I mean, you don’t have to be an incredible fighter, but now that you’re active you should at least know how to look after yourself, just in case we can’t protect you.”

“Active?” That uncanny instinct that kept whispering in his ears told him that he _needed_ to know what that word meant, and given that it had saved his life only a few hours ago Tsuna was reluctant to ignore it.

“Oh, yes, I forgot we needed to explain that. Hayato kun could probably give you a more technical explanation, but he can be a little… hard to follow, when he gets caught up in a subject.” Chrome visibly considered for a moment before continuing. “So there are seven types of dying will flames, think of them as willpower made manifest, people who can use them can do, incredible things. Most people can’t access them though, it takes both a genetic predisposition and a life or death situation, for a person to go active. Your father was a strong Sky, so we knew you had the predisposition, and it seems like the assassination attempt took care of the rest.”

“How can you tell?” Instinct again, and he was starting to wonder if there was something unnatural about the way it nudged at his thoughts, and pointed him, unerringly at the right questions.

“We can feel it.” She admitted softly. “In the blood, and bone, and soul. Skies draw other elements in, bring them into harmony, and you are a very strong Sky. The feeling is impossible to miss. You can probably feel it too, other elements do pull back, you just don’t know what it is you’re feeling.” And now that she had said it, he realised she was right, that there was something, warm, and hungry, and terribly present, pulling him towards her, towards all of them. If she and the others were feeling something similar…

“It’s making me a target isn’t it?” Because of course it was. Because Tsuna being a target was one of the immutable laws of the universe, and he wan’t sure why he’d ever dared think otherwise. She gave him a serious look.

“Yes. Skies are rare, and valuable, and right now you’re a beacon to anyone with the senses to look. Even without the Vongola connection you’d be a target, as it is, well, you need training, at least enough to hide, preferably enough to defend yourself.”

“Ok”, Tsuna breathed, “Ok. Training, I can do that.” He would not panic, he had got through an abduction, and an assassination attempt, and the complete upturning of everything he knew about the world without falling apart, he would not lose it now.

_The first time she kissed him, he didn’t see it coming, They had been dating a few weeks and he had bought her a gift, nothing big, just a little owl phone charm he saw and thought she would like. Her response had caught him completely off guard. Just a quick brush of lips against lips, but heartfelt for all that. It was lucky she thought his flailing panic afterwards was cute, and when she leaned in again he had the presence of mind to return and deepen the kiss._

“Probably we’ll go to Mafia land.” Chrome said, while Tsuna tried to keep his breathing under control. “It’s neutral territory so it should give us some breathing space, and I think Colonello owes Skull kun a favour, so it might be worth approaching him for training, for all of us you included.” She registered his carefully suppressed panic and added in a tone that was equal parts reassuring and fierce. “Don’t worry, we wouldn’t have taken you if we didn’t think we could keep you.”

That promise really shouldn’t have been as comforting as it was, but the instinct curled up in the back of his mind was all but purring with satisfaction, and between his trust in Chrome, and the pull of his Sky flames, and the fact that if it weren’t for the resistance he would be dead, he could do nothing but lean in to that unfamiliar feeling of being wanted.

He missed his mother though. Missed her, and was afraid for her, because the mafia was after him and she was defenceless. He missed her, but seeing her would just put her in more danger, and he couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her hurt. Almost as though she could read his mind Chrome spoke again.

“Your mother is safe as far as we know. It seems that one of your father’s associates came and retrieved her. Lal Mirch is an arcobaleno, Nana should be safe with her.” Something in Tsuna’s chest eased at that revelation, a fear that he’d been refusing to fully acknowledge. Maybe that was foolish, Chrome had lied about so many things after all, but… she hadn’t lied when it really mattered, when it came down to life and death and love. He had chosen to forgive her, to stay with her, and in doing so, he had chosen to trust her. If Chrome said his mother was safe, he had to believe her. In any case he had a bone deep feeling that if anyone tried to lie to him now he would _know._ The whispering in his head had only been growing stronger since it had first saved his life. He suspected that soon enough no-one would be able to hide things from him at all.

He wasn’t sure whether to find that reassuring or terrifying.

That was true of a lot of things right now. Because everything that had happened was beyond terrifying, but there was also a certain rush to it. He had left home, and nearly been assassinated, and he was on the run with his girlfriend and an armed revolutionary group, and it was just a little bit like living in an action movie. There was an unfamiliar alien part of him that was actually enjoying all this, a warmth that had cracked its way through his soul when the first gunshot was fired and refused to die down again, not exactly _happy,_ at the way the universe had turned on him again but, not miserable or panicked either. He wasn’t sure he liked it, it didn’t feel like him.

The part of him that wanted to panic wondered idly if active Flames made you just a little crazy.

_The whole school had known they were dating within a week, and if they’d still been in Nami middle he knew there was no way there wouldn’t have been trouble over Dame Tsuna having a pretty girlfriend. But he’d been better since arriving in high school. Still not the best student, still not exactly popular, but he was focusing a little better, and attracting a little less trouble, and no-one had called him Dame Tsuna since he left middle school.  Back in Nami middle there would have been trouble, here, the school had taken note, there had been some gossip for a few days, and then the student population had collectively shrugged and accepted the new state of affairs. That was the moment that Tsuna had really truly started to believe that just maybe things were going to change, to get better._

_Maybe a month after that, someone shot at him, and suddenly everything had changed in ways that no-one sane would consider better._

_Tsuna was increasingly sure he wasn’t actually entirely sane._

_Maybe that was for the best._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsuna is struggling a bit because while he was still sealed a lot of his more aggressive or active impulses were kind of muted. So now that he's broken through it, he's feeling a whole lot of things he's not used to feeling so strongly and it doesn't entirely feel like him. Time will settle his emotions a bit, and he'll feel more like himself once he's managed to regain some equilibrium, but right now he kind of feels like not all his emotions belong to him.  
> The hyper intuition is not helping with his vague feeling that his Flames have a mind of their own.  
> Next stop mafia land, where he will get a handle on the basics of using/controlling his flames and the rest of la resistance will get some more advanced training, because if you're going to call in a favor you really should take full advantage.


End file.
